Why habitat architecture and color are important to shrimps living in pelagic Sargassum: use of camouflage and plant-part mimicry

Abstract

Correlated the size, shape, color and behaviour of Latreutes fucorum and Hippolyte coerulescens with the architecture and color of the Sargassum natans habitat (number, size, shape and arrangement of structural components of the habitat). Latreutes most resembled Sargassum fronds, while Hippolyte resembled the gas-filled bladders (vesicles). As shrimps outgrow the specific plant parts they mimic, they use color patterns to camouflage themselves and generally resemble the Sargassum habitat matrix. -from Author